Guenther Steiner tells Alpine not to sign Mick Schumacher: “You need to get the best driver”

Former Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner has advised Alpine not to sign Mick Schumacher as a possible replacement for Esteban Ocon.

On Monday, Alpine announced they will “part ways” with Ocon at the end of the season.

A host of names have been linked with the vacant seat, including junior driver Jack Doohan.

Sauber driver Valtteri Bottas has also been mentioned, while Schumacher - who currently races for Alpine in the World Endurance Championship - is an outside candidate for the drive.

Schumacher drove under Steiner for two years at Haas before being dropped for Nico Hulkenberg.

The pair had a fractious relationship with Schumacher claiming he didn’t have the full support of Steiner.

Steiner grew frustrated with Schumacher’s number of high-profile shunts and the interference of his entourage, particularly through the German press.

Speaking on the Red Flags podcast, Steiner suggested Alpine should look at either Carlos Sainz or Yuki Tsunoda, while dismissing any suggestions of signing Schumacher alongside Pierre Gasly.

“In the moment not, no,” he said. “You need to get the best driver you know is out there. I think people which are showing that they’re very good. And as a works team, you need to do the best you can.”

In terms of Ocon, he’s been linked with possible moves to Haas or Audi.

Steiner was asked for his view Ocon in the wake of the Frenchman’s clash with Gasly in Monaco.

“Obviously you think about it, absolutely you think about it, because it’s just something you don’t want,” he added

“And I always say, team-mates don’t need to be the best friends, they don’t need to go out for dinner, but they need to respect each other.  Because in the end, but it’s generally in life, you need to respect other people.

“If you don’t like to drive with this guy in your team, just go somewhere else.  If I don’t like to be somewhere, I move on. I’m not trying to fight it at the cost of somebody else, which is the team.

“So one of them should have said, ‘I cannot be in the team with this other guy’, and somebody else maybe should have seen that.  Everybody knows about the history of the two of them and even their parents apparently, they had to keep them apart.

“That’s not what you want when you’re going, ‘Oh, we will be teammates, yeah it’s all good, we just fought the last 20 years, but now that’s all good’, you know?"